Kathy Kirby

Born: 20 October 1938 - Died: 19 May 2011

R.I.P.

Kathy Kirby was born Kathleen O'Rourke in Ilford, Essex on the East London borders on October 20, 1940. She was dubbed "The Golden Girl of Pop" in the mid-'60s, although her fall from fame into obscurity was almost instantaneous, as the international singing star who had appeared at the Royal Variety Performance and was Britain's entrant to the Eurovision Song Contest, earning millions, was declared bankrupt and found her life in ruins, sleeping in a shop doorway. She was a child prodigy, winning her first talent contest at the age of just three. She had an operatic singing voice and was a member of the school choir, looking forward to a potential career in opera and she was recruited as the featured singer for Bert Ambrose & His Orchestra, one of Britain's leading wartime big bands. The link with Ambrose remained long after she had departed to sing with other bandleaders, and then as a solo singer, signing a contract with Decca Records. It was the medium of television that gave her her big break, when she appeared in 1962 as a guest on the The Arthur Haynes Show and The Morecambe and Wise Show but it was the TV series, Stars & Garters, a variety show based in a traditional British pub setting, that made her a star. Appearing as a sort of Marilyn Monroe figure, blonde and youthful, she appealed to both teenagers and their fathers, and wore a glossy lipstick which earned her the nickname of "Wetlips." Kirby was a regular on the show throughout 1963 and 1964 and was undoubtedly billed as the star, releasing an album featuring songs that had been sung on the program called 16 Hits from Stars and Garters which just failed to reach the Top Ten early in 1964. 1963 was her peak year, just as teenagers were turning to the sounds of Merseybeat, she was voted the Top British Female Singer in the New Musical Express Poll and had several hit singles, beginning with a vocal version of the Shadows former instrumental number one hit "Dance On."